6D. Technical Infrastructure:
DELIVERY

Key Concepts

introduction
networks
  concerns
  speed
  trends
monitors
  evaluation
  image quality
printers
  technologies
  evaluation

NETWORKS: TRENDS
Efforts are continuing to increase network throughput. One strategy is to improve speeds on existing networks through new forms of compression or presentation. However, the need to reduce file size to speed delivery may be a limited-term concern as broad bandwidth information pipelines and wireless high speed data transfer capabilities are developed in the next 5-10 years to support research, electronic commerce, and entertainment. The increasing deployment of cable modem and DSL services to residences will ease bandwidth concerns at the user's end. The potential of digital television, in particular High Definition Television (HDTV), to provide new and different kinds of information to a broad range of users—including access to digitized cultural resources—is tantalizing. Current US Federal Communications Comission (FCC) rules require all analog broadcasts to be phased out by the end of 2006. Beginning with Internet 2, the U.S. government is funding efforts to build the Next Generation Internet (NGI) to link research labs and universities to high-speed networks that are 100 to 1,000 times faster than the current Internet. Designed to handle high volumes of information, the NGI will make access to digital image files easy and high quality audio and moving image transfer practical.

Computer Considerations
Most of the requirements for a network server have already been touched upon. Such machines are very resource hungry, especially if heavily used. Keeping a network server optimally tuned requires a skilled systems administrator. Perhaps the best advice is not to skimp on personnel for managing networks and servers.

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